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Aligning Today’s Learning with Tomorrow’s Economic Reality

How can we better prepare everyone from teens to Millennials for a more decentralized and increasingly independent future of work?

The skills needed to thrive in the 21st century workforce are substantively different than those needed in the 20th century, as we shift to a more digital, entrepreneurial and flexible society. Yet both educational institutions and workforce development programs have largely failed to keep pace with these changes. By 2027, more than half of all U.S. workers are expected to be self-employed. Teens today are learning (or not learning) the skills that will prepare them for their careers 10 years from now. Many workers who have traditional full-time jobs today will have to go through at minimum some kind of training, and quite possibly a fundamental retooling to help them move from the old-style economy to the new.

It’s time to align the educational and learning opportunities of today with economic realities of tomorrow. In this roundtable, we’ll discuss adapting the way we learn to our rapidly changing economic reality, fast-tracking and improving worker training initiatives, and looking to government policies and the tech sector for innovative initiatives that will better prepare workers for the future. What are the skills we ought to be teaching today, to prepare tomorrow’s workers for success? What are the biggest gaps in training and professional development? What could policy makers, governments and the private sector (particularly technology companies) do to help meet these needs?

Join us as we dive into how to help future independent workers become lifelong learners from an early age, and prepare for this future of work that is already emerging today.